In Sunday’s “60 Minutes” interview, which I covered yesterday, President Donald Trump and his interviewer, Ross Douthat, used the word “deal” 35 times. The word “amnesty” was used zero times. Yet that’s the word now flooding the internet as people digest what Trump said about immigration.
So what got everyone all worked up about amnesty?
As I detailed yesterday, Trump evaluated his immigration work, saying he “got an A+ for closing up the border” and “very high marks for getting the bad ones out.” But he also admitted, “I get hurt because ... there’s a large group of people [who] think that [landscapers and hotel workers] should be allowed to stay.”
Backing up to what prompted that comment, Douthat asked the president, “What is one thing you would like to work with a Democratic majority on?”
Immigration, answered Trump. “The deal would be we would work something out,” he explained. “Get the killers out. ... Get the rapists out. Get all the rough ones out. Get the drug dealers out. But let the people that are here, and in some cases here for 10 and 15 years, work a deal for them, okay?”
“Some kind of legal status?” asked Douthat. “Yeah...” Trump responded.
Republican voters are used to this sort of talk being code for amnesty, so that’s where the conversation went. Many on the Right were apoplectic.
Amnesty is certainly where Florida Republican Representative Maria Salazar took things, though without using the word. “Well done, Mr. President!” she excitedly posted on X. “What you described on 60 Minutes is what the Dignity Act is all about.” The Dignity Act is effectively amnesty.
Note: eight of the bill’s GOP cosponsors lost last Tuesday.
Amnesty was never part of Trump’s platform or appeal. It’s not what anyone who voted for him in 2024 expected. In fact, he promised “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country,” which almost by definition means it wouldn’t stop with “the worst of the worst.”
Still, while the visceral reaction to ICE was indeed strong (as Democrats planned and hoped), Trump has not been nearly as tough as he could have been. Since January 2025, there have been an estimated 1.2 million formal deportations, though self-deportations more than double that. His administration hasn’t done widespread workplace enforcement, so most landscapers and maids have been able to stay.
You could certainly argue that’s de facto amnesty.
That’s also a concession to practical and political reality. As I noted yesterday, most Americans hold a contradictory position on immigration. They think we needed to close the border but not do anything to the millions of people who crossed illegally. Stop committing the crime of illegally crossing the border, they say, but don’t deport anybody who already committed that crime.
Americans generally view this as compassion, but it invites border chaos — and other crimes, like tax evasion and identity theft. Sanctuary jurisdictions are far worse, deliberately protecting even violent criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans.
Perhaps Trump knew he stepped in it because, at a press conference on Monday, he insisted, “There’s no amnesty, no, no anything.”
As usual, this all depends on how you define amnesty.
“My policy hasn’t changed,” Trump added. That’s likely true because he just elevated immigration hardliner Stephen Miller to be chief of staff.
But his administration has also softened its rhetoric. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Monday, “If we want to have an immigration reform where we can look at DACA and figure out a way that these individuals can become maybe legal permanent citizens or something like this, that’ll be up to Congress to do that. I’ll be open to talk to anything.”
He added, “Amnesty is never going to be a solution. We’re never gonna allow amnesty to happen.”
What does he call “legal permanent citizens”?
Indeed, this is exactly what’s so exasperating about the amnesty conversation. Every Republican knows “amnesty” is a toxic word, so they avoid it and insist their policy won’t be that. But then they talk of deals and limited enforcement that ... are amnesty.
In any case, Democrats are unlikely to make a deal with Trump. “There’s not going to be any opportunity, certainly, to work with Stephen Miller and what he represents,” declared soon-to-be Democrat House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. “We’re committed to forcefully pushing back against the extremism that they may try to continue to unleash on the American people.”
Speaking of unleashing extremism, here’s the Democratic Socialists of America platform: “End ICE detention and deportations and punish federal agents’ brutality. Legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status, provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents, and end visa caps and quotas.”
Meanwhile, another migrant caravan is headed for the border, and all four border states will have Democrat governors in January.
